LAND OF THE GIANTS-NIGHT OF THROMBELDINBAR
NIGHT OF THROMBELDINBAR PRODUCTION 20 AIRED 2-16-1969---18TH WRITER-BOB AND ESTHER MITCHELL DIR-SOBEY MARTIN MUSIC-LEITH STEVENS (credits include WAR OF THE WORLDS AND DESTINATION MOON) TEASER Barry, Fitzhugh, and Chipper in the daytime, duck as a woman opens a window and leaves cookies for a Thrombeldinbar. One falls and Fitzhugh takes it. He and Barry surmise it is a giant holiday. Barry goes to get Chipper as an SID car, in the street, passes close by, alarms on. Fitzhugh cuts through the park and is grabbed up by a giant blond haired boy who calls Fitzhugh by the name of Thrombeldinbar. Barry and Chipper follow the boy who has Fitzhugh, "Mr. Fitzhugh." ACT ONE Barry runs off from a scary organ grinder named Okun who sicks his monkey chimp (named Monk) after the boy. Barry goes back to Spindrift and alerts the others; he followed the giant boy back to an orphanage. The boy, Garner, shows Fitzhugh to his younger brother Tobey. They are amused at Fitzhugh. All the other children who do not have parents left with adults who wanted to take them home for the holidays--none "spoke for" Tobey and Garner. Fitzhugh feels sorry for them--and gives them the cookie he has, even though he was getting sick of the boiled roots again and the cookie would have made a difference. He makes an elf hat and tells the boys nursery rhymes and fairy tales--not really remembering them correctly. It doesn't matter since the tales and rhymes are new to this land. Garner tells Fitzhugh the brothers can only set him free just as the moon rises and if they do that, they will get their wish. The others arrive outside (minus Betty, who isn't mentioned or seen at all in this entire episode). Val notices every house decorated like a birthday cake except the orphanage. Mark and Steve cut their way into the air vent screen and notice that it goes upward and then down to the boys' room. The boys hide Fitzhugh in a toy box when Mr. Parteg, the head man here, demands to see the box. ACT TWO Fitzhugh gets out of the box. Parteg tells the boys he gave up his holiday with his friends in the mountains to stay with the two boys. Parteg gives them very hard math problems which Fitzhugh uses Mark and Steve to answer and solve. Fitzhugh wants to stay, likening the elf to Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. Steve tells him, "Fitzhugh, I don't like it." Under the bed, the two Earth men solve the problems and Garner fills out the answers on the sheet. Mark tells Fitzhugh that, although, our number system is based on base ten, the giant number system wants answers in base five. Parteg, outside, kicks a stone, which nearly hits Dan, Val, and Barry. Val gasps, "Did you see that?" They comment on how mean Parteg seems and that they wouldn't want to cross him. It is now fully dark. Parteg rips up the math problems and demands to know how they figured them out. He locks them in their room. They write Parteg a note, leave the cookie for him to eat, and drop Fitzhugh into a paper lunch bag. They run away by escaping out the window. Just outside it, Dan overhears how the boys believe they are to free Thrombeldinbar---they're to drop him within the paper bag, into the fire. The smoke going up is supposed to be him! ACT THREE Dan tells the others. Monk grabs the boys' bag at the picnic grounds. Okun fakes that is going to get it and switches it with another lunch bag from a garbage can, putting a stone in it and telling the boys it is Thrombeldinbar! Fitzhugh asks Okun to save him from "those wretched boys." When Okun reveals his plans to him, Fitzhugh asks out loud to no one in particular, "Oh, what have I done to deserve all this!" Mark, Valerie, and Barry hide beneath a garbage can to avoid Monk. Monk climbs on top of it. Dan and Steve witness the boys drop the bag into the fire and they think Fitzhugh was in it. They look their heads downward. Yet, Fitzhugh calls to them, yelling in the bag Okun has. Okun is now alerted to the fact that there are other little people when Fitz calls, "Steve, Dan, Mark!" Okun gives Monk the bag with Fitzhugh in it. The giant questions the two boys, then ties them to a large tree, threatening to bring them to a spot in the forest where no one will find them for a month. Barry looks at Monk, who, remaining on top the garbage can, is swinging the bag...and Fitzhugh around, "What are we gonna do? Mr. Fitzhugh's in that bag!" ACT FOUR Steve figures they can't rescue Fitzhugh and the boys without help. Mark suggests the calvary. Steve and Dan go to Parteg--who tries to grab them with a well placed, hidden net behind his back. After a few tense moments of disbelief, he finally listens to them and finds the note from the boys---"Young ingrates." He comes and fights with Okun, who was threatening to take a switch he made to the boys. Dan and Mark hatchet the rope holding the boys. The boys help Parteg fight Okun, all of them rolling. Val tells Steve, "That monkey terrifies me. I used to think monkeys were so cute." During the fight, the cookie goes flying from Parteg to the ground. Val chases Barry to it--both dangerously close to the fighting giant men. Barry's idea: feed the cookie to the monkey. Monk's leash gets caught in a tree. Steve moves closer to divert Monk so Fitzhugh, his bag down now, rips his way out the bag. He puffs, "You think somebody would have tried to help me." Fitzhugh turns, sensing movement, "Captain, watch out! Watch out!" The monkey, free now, corners Steve with its teeth bared! Steve falls on his back. TAG Val and Barry toss the cookie to the monkey, saving Steve. The five are joyously reunited with Fitzhugh, who thanks them. They all shakes hands and give each other pats on the backs. Okun and Monk run away, Parteg using the switch on him. Parteg apologizes to the boys and they leave to have their own holiday dinner. Fitzhugh tells the others he is looking forward to having those plain old boiled roots again.